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Similarly, there is a wrong perception in India that
Pingali Venkayyaa had designed the Indian National flag.
No, it is not true. Pingali did not
design the present national flag of India (He was the maker of the Swadeshi flag of 1921). Albeit, most Indians are made to believe the ‘myth’ that
the Indian National Flag - ‘The Tiranga’ adopted on 22 July 1947 by the Constituent Assembly was designed
by Pingali Venkayyaa. This is travesty of history.The historical evidence does not support the theory of just one individual maker of the Indian
National flag. Rather, the present
flag, like the Freedom Movement, was the work of many hands. The Flag we fly today was designed by Mrs. Suraiya Badr-ud-din Tyabji .

India’s Tiranga flag has become a
recognizable symbol the world over and is a source of great pride to Indians. The
booklet ‘Our Flag’ published by the
Publications Divisions, Govt. of India (January 1950) states; “The evolution
of the Indian National Flag reflects the political developments in the country
during the 20th century……”. page 1 (Origin)

The Flag of
India evolved through a sustained process.

There were many flags already in use in India
and abroad by the Indian exiled revolutionaries, much before Pingaly Venkayyaa
(1876-1963) - a great patriot and an aggressive campaigner of National flag, came up with a
booklet‘A National Flag for India’ in
1916. Pingali had put forth about 24 designs for the Indian flag in his booklet.Pingali's designs were never able to enthuse Gandhi;
and in his designs, Gandhi saw nothing to stir the nation to its depths.

Here
are the full stories;

11) Sister
Nivedita (1867-1911) - an
Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda (born Margaret Noble) devised a square flag
emblazoned with a Vajra (Thunderbolt) and the slogan Bande-Mataram in the
centre in 1905, the year Lord Curzon declared ‘partition of Bengal’.

2)In 1906 on the first anniversary of ‘partition of Bengal’
a tricolor flag was raised by Sir Surendranath Bannerjee , The flag was jointly
designed by Sachindra Prasad Basu
and Sukumar Mitra with the support
of volunteers of Anushilan Society (a secret Society). The flag was made by Kumudini Basu, sister of Sukumar Mitra. The flag was later
hoisted by Dadabhai Naoroji in the
Calcutta Congress in December 1906. Reportedly Pingali Venkayyaa was present as
Congress delegate during the event.

3)A strikingly similar flag was displayed at Stuttgart
Germany in 1907 by Madam Bikaiji Cama.Bhupendranath
Dutta, younger brother of Swami Vivekananda wrote in one of his well researched book that "It was Hem Chandra Kanungo (Das) - a member of
the Anushilan Samity and ‘in know’ of the Calcutta flag made the Cama’s
flag in Paris".The similarity of the two flags was not a coincidence or
an example of ‘Parallelism in history’. Hem Chandra was a member of Anushilan Society (a secret society engaged in Bengal in early 1900s). All the members of the society had to take an oath of secrecy, as such, Hem Chandra never claimed publicly that it was he who made the flag for Madam Cama. But his biographers later on came out and revealed how Hemchandra got involved with Cama and made the flag (a variant of the Calcutta flag) for her to wave it at Stuttgart.

The above described flagsevoked limited response amongst the masses and
were usedonly in certain events during
our early phases of freedom movements. With the passage of time all these flags
relegated to history.

Evolution
of Swaraj Flag (1921-1931) - First
Pan India National Flag.

We know from M.K.Gandhi’s(He was not yet
Mahatma
then) article published in Young India in April 1921, I quote;

Mr. P Venkayya of
the National College, Masulipatam, has for some years placed
before the public a suggestive booklet describing the flags of the other
nations and offering designs for an Indian National-Flag. But, whilst I have
always admired the persistent zeal with which Mr. Venkayya has prosecuted the
cause of a National-Flag at every session of the Congress for the past four
years, he was never able to enthuse me;
and in his designs I saw nothing to stir the nation to its depths. …
It was Lala Hansraj of Jullundur who, in discussing the possibilities of
the spinning wheel, suggested that
it should find a place on our Swaraj-Flag. I could not help admiring the
originality of the suggestion. At Bezwada I
asked Mr. Venkayya to give me a design containing a spinning wheel on a red (Hindu Colour) and Green (Muslim colour)
background.His enthusiastic spirit enabled me to possess a flag in three
hours. It was just a little late for presentation to the All-India Congress
Committee. I am glad it was so. On maturer consideration I saw that the
background should represent the other religions also. Hindu-Muslim unity is not
an exclusive term; it is an inclusive term, symbolic of the unity of all faiths
domiciled in India. If Hindus and Muslims can tolerate each other, they are
together bound to tolerate all other faiths. The unity is not a menace to the
other faiths represented in India or to the world. So I suggest that the background should be white and green and red. The
white portion is intended to represent all other faiths.

Unquote.

Take Mahatma Gandhi’s
writings seriously (and why not), it was Gandhi
who took the pivotal role in formulating the first Swaraj flag design, where Pingali Venkayyaawas only responsible for the production of
the first“flag” . Surely, Pingali was not the inventor of the Swaraj flag. Pingali Venkayya published a booklet titled "A National Flag for India"
in 1916. His passionate obsession for a national Flag for India
compelled the Congress leaders to address the flag issue with greater
depth perhaps for the first time. Pingali Venkayya is and will remain as the
pioneer protagonist of our National flag.

Some of the flag
designs made by Pingali Venkayyaa. Gandhi did not like any of the flag designs produced by Pingali.

In all his 24-designs predominantly with Hindu religious traditions, was a small Union Jack at the upper left corner (Canton), which was undesirable. It is interesting
to find that the Sister Nivedita’s ‘Vajra
flag’ was also found a place in Pingali’s flag list.

There were
resentments about the communal interpretations of the colours of the Swaraj flag, notwithstanding Gandhi’s
approval. So, a 'Flag Committee' was formed in 1931 to recommend and advice a new Flag for India.

India
Post notoriously known as ‘dead
brains’ and most ignorant of Indian History issued a postage stamp in 2009
in honour of Pingali Venkayyaa. The brochure released by India Post on the occasion projected him as the designer of the Purna
Swaraj Flag and misquoted Gandhi. What a mockery.

Purna Swaraj
Flag (1931-1947) was formulated by
the members of the Congress Working Committee chaired by Sardar
Ballavbhai Patel in accordance with the inputs from Jawaharlal Nehru in
Bombay in August 1931. Earlier, the ‘Flag Committee – 1931’ headed by Dr
Pattabhi Sitaramiyyaa failed miserably to recommend/find a suitable flag design.

Note: Pingali
Venkayyaa was not even included in the ‘Flag Committee-1931’, nor he was a member of the Congress Working Committee,
(probably by then; Pingali Venkayyaa had withdrawn himself from the mainstream
politics). The design of the Purna Swaraj Flag was transferred to Khadi bunting by another Congress volunteer Dr. N. S. Hardikar.

Finally in 1947 the
Constituent Assembly set up an ad hoc
committee under the chairmanship of Dr.
Rajendra Prasadto recommend a new
flag of Free India, The Committee unanimously chose Asoka Chakra device in
place of Gandhi’s Charkha.

The model of the new flag of free India was made by Mrs. Suraiya Badr-ud-din Tyabjion 17July
1947.(Mrs Tyabji’s husband was the
joint secretary in the Constituent Assembly and grandson of the great Tayabji
who was the President of the Congress party in 1887).

Mahatma Gandhiwas not too happy with the replacement of the charkha in the flag. He admitted in a statement published in the Harijan that, ‘Nothing would have lost, if our councillors had never thought of
interfering with the design of the original flag.’

In a statement made
in Lahore on 6 August 1947,Gandhi
said, "I must say that, if the Flag of
the Indian Union will not embody the emblem of the Charkha, I will refuse to salute that flag. You
know the National Flag of India was first thought of by me, and I cannot conceive of India’s National Flag
without the emblem of the Charkha".

Attempts at debunking the Pingali Venkayyaa myth had not been very
fruitful.When a Belief has been in Circulation, People Find it Difficult to Negate it, Even when Pointed out.

About Me

Sekhar Chakrabarti - Vexillologist, author and a passionate collector of flag stamps and flag artifacts.
His name found a place in the "Limca Book of Records" for his collections of most stamps featuring the Indian National flag.
Curated International exhibitions commemorating 125th Birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in Kolkata and Cairo (Egypt) organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Govt of India in 2011.
Had served as a jury member at several philatelic exhibitions organized by India Post and other philatelic organizations.
Curated a solo exhibition on “Indian National Flag” show casing myriad flag artifacts for the first time in India under the auspices of ICCR, Govt of India in 2014.
First Indian delegate to present original research based papers on aspects of the Indian Flag at the 25th International Congress of Vexillology (ICV25) at Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2013, ICV26 Sydney Flag Congress, Australia in 2015 and at ICV27 in London Flag Congress in August 2017.
He lives in Kolkata, India.
Email ID: sekhar.chakrabarti@gmail.com